Vegan studies

Vegan studies is de study, widin de humanities and sociaw sciences, of veganism as an identity and ideowogy, and de expworation of its depiction in witerature, de arts, popuwar cuwture, and de media.[1][a][b] In a narrower use of de term, it seeks to estabwish veganism as a "mode of dinking and writing", a "means of critiqwe",[3] and "a new wens for ecocriticaw textuaw anawysis".[4] Vegan studies is cwosewy rewated to criticaw animaw studies.[5]

The period wed to de devewopment of human–animaw studies (awso known as animaw studies),[21][d] de study of how humans and nonhumans interact, how humans have cwassified oder animaws, and what dat sociaw construction means.[24] It awso wed, in de earwy 2000s, to de devewopment of criticaw animaw studies (CAS), an academic fiewd dedicated to studying and ending de expwoitation of animaws.[25] Named in 2007, CAS grew directwy out of de animaw wiberation movement, winking "activism, academia and animaw suffering".[26] Veganism is described as "a basewine for CAS praxis".[2] Criticizing human–animaw studies as andropocentric, and aiming for "totaw wiberation" (incwuding of humans), CAS schowars decwared demsewves committed to de "abowition of animaw and ecowogicaw expwoitation".[e]

In December 2013, in de journaw PhaenEx, media schowar Eva Giraud discussed de rewationship of veganism to animaw studies, ecofeminism and posdumanism.[35][f] Academic work on veganism appeared in Nick Taywor and Richard Twine's 2014 cowwection, The Rise of Criticaw Animaw Studies,[37] and in December dat year, Emiwia Quinn and Benjamin Westwood addressed a workshop at de University of York, organized by de art historian Jason Edwards, to discuss "de fast devewoping fiewd of vegan deory".[38]

Quinn and Westwood write dat veganism's "entry into de academy" began around 2010.[39] Shortwy after de pubwication dat year of her cowwection Sistah Vegan,[40]A. Breeze Harper announced a new "criticaw race and veg*n studies intersect" research group on her website, The Sistah Vegan Project,[41] and was working on "appwications of criticaw race and bwack feminist studies to vegan studies in de US".[42] Awso in 2010, de Journaw for Criticaw Animaw Studies pubwished an edition devoted to de perspectives of women of cowor, which had been "eeriwy absent from criticaw animaw studies and vegan studies in generaw".[43] They incwuded an essay by Harper, "Race as a 'Feebwe Matter' in Veganism".[44]

Vegan studies was proposed as a new academic fiewd by Laura Wright, professor of Engwish at Western Carowina University, in October 2015 in her book The Vegan Studies Project: Food, Animaws, and Gender in de Age of Terror,[45] described as de "first major academic monograph in de humanities focused on veganism".[46] Wright's work was prompted by research for her doctoraw dissertation into J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace (1999) and The Lives of Animaws (1999),[47] and was furder infwuenced by Adams's The Sexuaw Powitics of Meat.[48] Wright frames vegan studies as "inherentwy ecofeminist", according to Caitwin E. Stobie.[49][g]

In May 2016 Quinn and Westwood organized a conference at Wowfson Cowwege, Oxford, Towards a Vegan Theory, at which Wright gave de keynote address.[54] Oder works in vegan studies fowwowed, incwuding a 2016 cowwection, Criticaw Perspectives on Veganism, pubwished by Pawgrave Macmiwwan and edited by Jodey Castricano and Rasmus R. Simonsen;[55] a speciaw cwuster in de journaw ISLE in December 2017;[56] a 2018 cowwection edited by Quinn and Woodward, Thinking Veganism in Literature and Cuwture, based on de Oxford conference and awso pubwished by Pawgrave Macmiwwan;[57] and a 2019 cowwection, Through a Vegan Studies Lens: Textuaw Edics and Lived Activism, pubwished by University of Nevada Press and edited by Wright.[58]

In 2016 Mewanie Joy cawwed vegan studies a fiewd "whose time has come".[59]

In 2016 Mewanie Joy and Jens Tuider cawwed vegan studies a "fiewd of research whose time has come". It estabwishes veganism as an academic topic; gaders research on veganism, de history of veganism, and carnism; examines veganism's edicaw, powiticaw and cuwturaw basis and repercussions;[60] and expwores how vegan identity is presented in witerature, de arts, fiwm, popuwar cuwture, advertising and de media.[61] Adams wrote dat vegan studies examines "de vegan phobic, de vegan deniers, de nonvegan 'vegan', de probwematic 'hegan,' de feminist vegan, de animaw activist vegan".[62] According to anoder description, it highwights de "oppositionaw rowe pwayed by veganism towards ideowogies dat wegitimate oppression".[63] Writing in 2018, de phiwosopher Josh Miwburn remained unconvinced dat dere was a witerature about veganism "sufficientwy unified to be wabewed a new discipwine".[64]

According to Wright, vegan studies is a "wived and embodied edic"[65] providing "a new wens for ecocriticaw textuaw anawysis". Vegan studies schowars examine texts "via an intersectionaw wens of veganism" to expwore de rewationship of humans to deir food sources and de environment. In Wright's view, de vegan body and vegan identity "constitute a performative project and an entity in a state of perpetuaw transformation".[4]

Wright offers as an exampwe of a vegan studies anawysis a 2018 articwe by Stobie in ISLE about The Vegetarian by Han Kang, winner of de 2016 Man Booker Internationaw Prize: "Rader dan read protagonist Yeong-hye's pwight as de resuwt of iwwogicaw mentaw iwwness, Stobie reads her character's actions—to eschew eating meat to de point of starvation, even when members of her famiwy try to force feed it to her—as a posdumanist performance of vegan praxis dependent upon inarticuwabwe trauma and de desire for intersectionaw and interspecies connection, uh-hah-hah-hah."[66]

Anoder exampwe is Sara Sawih's account, in Quinn and Westwood's 2018 cowwection, of "dree scenes of faiwed witness", incwuding when she weft a formaw wunch in tears when de chicken dish arrived, and when she and oders stood staring (pointwesswy, she fewt at de time) at swaughterhouse workers using ewectric prods to push pigs off a worry. Sawih argues dat dere is in fact an edicaw purpose to witnessing such acts. The witnessing outside de swaughterhouse was a performative act, an "iwwegaw act un-sanctioning", directed at de workers.[67] At de same time as asking dese qwestions, Sawih was feeding standard cat food to seven cats.[68] "Why", she asks Derrida, who wrote about his cat in The Animaw That Therefore I Am (2008), "have you chosen to turn towards dis animaw rader dan dat one?"[69] She suggests dat de scawe of suffering makes "[o]ur imaginations bauwk"; it seems absurd to understand dat "we are in de presence of de dead ... when faced wif a scoopfuw of kibbwe."[70] Neverdewess she advises: "Look as cwosewy as you can at your boww or de neighbour's boww or de cat's boww, bear witness, and den decide wheder de current norms of wogic or rationawity possess any moraw vawidity."[71]

Awmiron, Cowe and Freeman write dat vegan studies and criticaw animaw studies (CAS) share common roots as "rewated branches in de evowution of criticaw approaches to human domination".[2][h] Wright views vegan studies as "informed by and divergent from" animaw studies, incwuding criticaw animaw studies.[72] According to Larue, vegan studies is "bof narrower and broader dan animaw studies". It intersects wif criticaw animaw studies but encompasses fiewds such as environmentaw studies and nutrition, which pway an important rowe in de way veganism has been perceived, promoted, or criticized in de wast few decades and today."[b]

According to Awex Lockwood of de University of Sunderwand, vegan studies offers a "radicaw and more coherent way of ensuring de present experiences of aww beings are taken into account when examining de ways in which discourse shapes power".[74] It "engages a wived powitics" of empady and care, as Wright describes it.[75]

^Núria Awmiron, Matdew Cowe, and Carrie P. Freeman (European Journaw of Communication, 1 August 2018): "The term 'vegan studies' highwights de oppositionaw rowe pwayed by veganism towards ideowogies dat wegitimate oppression and derefore awso de ways in which veganism itsewf may be marginawized, misrepresented or distorted in and by de media."[2]

^ abRenan Larue (2019): "Vegan studies is an emerging fiewd of research, which is about understanding de vegan phenomenon, from its first manifestations untiw de present time, and expwores what is at stake wif it deowogicawwy, morawwy, andropowogicawwy, sociawwy, or psychowogicawwy.

"Vegan studies constitutes a reawm bof narrower and broader dan animaw studies. Narrower, because it focuses on de way human beings behave towards animaws, in particuwar dose we fish, hunt, breed, use, swaughter, and eat (in dat sense, vegan studies intersect partwy wif criticaw animaw studies). Broader, because vegan studies encompasses oder fiewds, namewy environmentaw studies and nutrition, which pway an important rowe in de way veganism has been perceived, promoted, or criticized in de wast few decades and today."[73]

Margo DeMewwo (Animaws and Society: An Introduction to Human-Animaw Studies, 2012): "The pubwication of two major phiwosophicaw works on animaws—Peter Singer's Animaw Liberation (1975), fowwowed by Tom Regan's The Case for Animaw Rights (1983)—wed to an expwosion of interest in animaws among academic, animaw advocates, and de generaw pubwic. We can see dat de rise of HAS [human–animaw studies] in academia, especiawwy over de wast decade, is rewated directwy to de phiwosophicaw debate regarding animaws as wordy of edicaw inqwiry."[18]

Phiwip Armstrong and Laurence Simmons (Knowing Animaws, 2007): "Every so often dere emerges a new intewwectuaw paradigm dat provokes a ﬂurry of new knowwedge. Over de wast two decades de humanities and sociaw sciences have been experiencing such an event: de 'animaw turn', comparabwe in significance to de 'winguistic turn' dat revowutionized humanities and sociaw science discipwines from de mid-twentief century onwards. ... We owe de phrase 'animaw turn' to Sarah Frankwin, who used it in conversation during de annuaw conference of de Cuwturaw Studies Association of Austrawasia, in December 2003 ..."[19]

Harriet Ritvo (Daedawus, Faww 2007): "[D]uring de wast severaw decades, animaws have emerged as a more freqwent form of schowarship in de humanities and sociaw sciences, as qwantified in pubwished books and articwes, conference presentations, new societies, and new journaws. Wif dis change in degree has come a potentiaw change in kind. As it has expanded de range of possibwe research topics in a number of discipwines, de animaw turn has awso suggested new rewationships between schowars and deir subjects, and new understandings of de rowe of animaws in de past and at present."[20]

^Lori Gruen (Criticaw Terms for Animaw Studies, 2018): "When schowars first began describing deir work as Animaw Studies, dere was occasionawwy confusion—some peopwe, incwuding many scientists, dought dat meant schowars were working directwy wif animaws, for exampwe, in waboratories or in de wiwd. This wed some schowars to adopt de name Human–Animaw Studies (HAS) and emphasize de rewationships dat de fiewd was devoted to examining, understanding, and criticawwy evawuating."[22]

Margo DeMewwo (Animaws and Society: An Introduction to Human–Animaw Studies, 2012): "Human-animaw studies (HAS), sometimes known as androzoowogy or animaw studies, is an interdiscipinary fiewd dat expwores de spaces dat animaws occupy in human sociaw and cuwturaw worwds, and de interactions humans have wif dem."[18]

Cary Wowfe (What is Posdumanism?, 2010): "What began in de earwy to mid-1990s as a smattering of work in various fiewds on human–animaw rewations and deir representation in various endeavors—witerary, artistic, scientific—has, as we reach de end of de new miwwenium's first decade, gawvanized into a vibrant emergent fiewd of interdispwinary inqwiry cawwed animaw studies or sometime human–animaw studies."[23]

^"Veganism is becoming a prominent area of focus in contemporary cuwturaw deory because debates about vegan praxis have emerged as a sub-fiewd of animaw studies dat crystawwises tensions between CAS and posdumanist-infwected 'mainstream' animaw studies. By grounding itsewf in notions of de inviowabwe rights of animaws ... veganism seems to be underpinned by de humanist edicaw frameworks dat mainstream animaw studies is moving away from in its turn to posdumanism."[36]

^Peter Adkins, Humanities, 4 Juwy 2017: "Not awways harmonious wif dis 'animaw turn' in phiwosophy and witerature has been de emergence of what Laura Wright outwines as de 'activist, deoreticaw mode' of feminist vegan studies (Wright 2015, p. 16). A body of cuwturaw criticism dat attends to what Carow J. Adams identifies as de 'overt associations between meat eating and viriwe maweness,' vegan studies impwores critics to not onwy attend to cuwturaw representations of animaw bodies but de 'patriarchaw attitudes' encoded in such representations (Adams 2010, pp. 25–26). ... Vegan studies, in bof Wright’s and Adams’s terms, wouwd extend de consciousness-raising impetus of everyday animaw edics to a criticaw practice dat focuses on animaw suffering and commodification, uh-hah-hah-hah. Whiwe deorists associated wif de 'animaw turn', such as Donna J. Haraway, have warned dat veganism runs de risk of insisting on absowutist moraw code dat wouwd constitute a restrictive 'Feminist Doxa' (Haraway 2008, p. 80), Wright's work insists on a definition of veganism in which it is understood dat dere is no 'singuwar reason' for veganism and no 'singuwar representative vegan body' but rader a pwurawity of cuwturaw and dietary motives and practices (Wright 2015, p. 8). Despite points of difference, bof criticaw vegan studies and animaw phiwosophy are predicated on reappraising how embodiment, materiawity, and wanguage, structure human and animaw rewations."[50]

^Núria Awmiron, Matdew Cowe, and Carrie P. Freeman (European Journaw of Communication, 1 August 2018): "The muwtidiscipwinary tenor of vegan studies is shared wif de prior emergence of one of de most important criticaw projects of recent years: CAS [criticaw animaw studies]. Indeed, vegan studies and CAS share common roots in many respects (wif veganism as a basewine for CAS praxis) and may best be understood as rewated branches in de evowution of criticaw approaches to human domination, wif, we argue, CAMS [criticaw animaw media studies] as anoder branch to be acknowwedged awongside dem."[63]

Martinewwi, Dario; Berkmanienė, Ausra (12 February 2018). "The Powitics and de Demographics of Veganism: Notes for a Criticaw Anawysis". Internationaw Journaw for de Semiotics of Law. 31 (3): 501–530. doi:10.1007/s11196-018-9543-3.

Taywor, Nik; Twine, Richard (2014). "Introduction: Locating de 'criticaw' in criticaw animaw studies". The Rise of Criticaw Animaw Studies: From de Margins to de Centre. London and New York: Routwedge.